First Potomac signs 2 leases in Chesapeake

Updated:August 19, 2011 - 4:53 pm

Posted:August 19, 2011

First Potomac Realty Trust signed two new leases totaling 115,000 square feet in Chesapeake.

The real estate investment trust, whose stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FPO, develops and owns office and industrial space in the mid-Atlantic - 5.3 million square feet in Hampton Roads and Richmond. The company is based in Bethesda, Md.

Carrier Enterprises LLC signed a 63,012-square-foot lease at Crossways Commerce

Center for seven years. The property is now 88 percent leased.

In addition, Serco Inc. signed a five-year lease for 52,054 square feet at Diamond Hill Distribution Center in Chesapeake. Diamond Hill is now 90 percent leased.

Two lease renewals were at Cavalier Industrial Park for 119,000 square feet and at 1434 Crossways Blvd. for 107,000 square feet in Chesapeake.

Acquisitions included One Fair Oaks, a 12-story, 214,000 square foot office building in Fairfax for $60.3 million and the Greenbrier Towers I and II in Chesapeake for $16.7 million.

The company reported $811.2 million in debt at the end of June. The majority of the debt, $547 million, was fixed at 6 percent interest.

The company's variable rate debt consisted of a $164 million credit line and $100 million on three secured loans.

In the wake of Standard & Poor's downgrade of America's credit rating, an index of real estate investment trusts fell 9.6 percent on Aug. 8, according to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, an industry group.

Yet the index rose 9.74 percent the next day, recouping all its losses.

REITS are appealing to investors because they must distribute at least 90 percent of their taxable income to shareholders each year as dividends.

In return a REIT can deduct dividends paid to shareholders from its taxable income.